I’ve discovered Akonadi, a KDE service. As far as I could understand, Akonadi provides “personal information management” and is responsible for some interaction between apps within the KDE ecosystem. To me, it seems to be bloatware. Somebody may use the functions it provides, but I do not. It is just running in background all the time with no use.
- How do I completely disable it forever?
- Have you ever met something else in Linux or it’s ecosystem, that appeared to be bloatware to you (and how did you disable it)?
OP, even if I personally don’t entirely agree with your sentiment. I am fully aware it is a legit one and I’m actually even sympathetic to the idea.
As others have already provided solutions to your problem, I just wanted to share https://suckless.org/philosophy/ with you. I’m pretty sure this is either were you are right now, or the logical conclusion of your trajectory.
Have you ever met something else in Linux or it’s ecosystem, that appeared to be bloatware to you (and how did you disable it)?
Perhaps through sheer luck[1] the Linux systems I’ve used have always been pretty minimal.
As bloat often comes with additional attack surface, the security-sensitive will be implored to go with minimalism anyways. As such, my current distro of choice; namely secureblue, is actively engaged with debloating the system. Recently, it has even started working on ‘debloating’ the kernel. Like, why should my system autoload parts of the kernel used to drive all sorts of old and niche hardware; like remote controls etc?
Still, there are stuff that I’m not using, but I’m too lazy to hunt them down 😅.
I started on Fedora Kinoite years ago. But due to some bug at the time, the system wasn’t fully initalized. When I eventually rebased to Silverblue, I ended up with a very minimal install. Sure, it still contained stuff we might regard bloat, but it was the last thing on my mind back then. ↩︎
How exactly is it bloatware though? Not a KDE user myself, just had a look at the wiki. Seems it’s just a convenience utility to allow you to not have to enter the same things into multiple applications?
This is VERY different from pre-installed apps in your start menu that collect and sell info about you…
Yeah, thinking more about it, I don’t think the term “bloatware” (as it is commonly used) applies here at all.
How do I completely disable it forever?
To answer your question:
sudo systemctl mask <servicename>.serviceThe much more common
disablejust disables autostart; masking will point the service file at/dev/null, which makes it impossible to load or start the service, even when other services or apps (like the clock widget someone mentioned in the comments) request it.I may appear paranoic, but it’s collecting metadata from contacts and email. Even though it does not sell anything, that’s not the thing I’d like to have running on my PC. And since I don’t even use most of the apps Akonadi is designed for, it is just wasting my CPU time and RAM space. That’s why I call it bloatware. And it’s shipped preinstalled on Fedora. Another reason is that there’s no way to manage it with KDE system settings. Why on earth I can’t manage a KDE utility with the settings of KDE? Why hiding it so deep I can’t find a bare notice of it without looking into htop or config files? It isn’t that crucial for the system to be hidden so deep.
And since I don’t even use most of the apps Akonadi is designed for, it is just wasting my CPU time and RAM space. That’s why I call it bloatware.
You can’t just make up your own meanings of already established words and terms. That’s simply not how the world works.
And if you don’t use it, why did you choose to install it in the first place?
My definition matches the definition given in the Collins Dictionary. If you don’t consider this a serious source, just accept I may not be always aware of a precise meaning of a certain term.
I did not choose to install Akonadi. It was preinstalled in Fedora KDE. I chose KDE for its extensive customization. Maybe I’m too old /j, but by choosing a DE I’m choosing just a DE. I couldn’t even think about how extensive an ecosystem around a DE could be. There are useful tools, like KDE Connect, which are meaningful to me and can be configured straightforwardly, but Akonadi is neither something I missed, nor it has an accessible configuration.
My definition matches the definition given in the Collins Dictionary.
I looked it up and found this:
pre-installed computer software with an excessive number of unnecessary features and, often, unnecessarily high memory and disc space requirements
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bloatware
Is there another dictionary named Collins that you read?
I did not choose to install Akonadi. It was preinstalled in Fedora KDE.
It looks like you choose a Linux based operating system that seems to includes a fairly complete stack of the KDE suit.
(I don’t know much about Fedora)
I chose KDE for its extensive customization.
I bet that Fedora have a minimal version without a graphical stack, which would let you to only install the Plasma desktop environment and the parts of the KDE suit you find relevant for you.
And I’m sure that it’s possible to strip down a current setup with Fedora and the KDE suit as well.
Maybe I’m too old /j, but by choosing a DE I’m choosing just a DE.
That’s the issue here, you didn’t choose just a desktop environment (Plasma Desktop) you choose a, more or less, complete suit of software (KDE). :)
It is just something needed for synching calendar and contact information between KDE services, if you have no application that does this, akonadi is not started in the first place… The calendar events in the default panel clock is one of these and can be disabled in its settings as another commenter mentioned
A user that want a minimal environment installs a modern complete and featurefull entire desktop environment and then complains that it’s too bloated, at five only on Lemmy.
What is this, reddit nowadays? /S
Anyway, you should uninstall plasma and switch to any of the many more basic Linux GUI environment that better suit you needs, that the magic of Linux after all, nobody forces you to use what you don’t like or don’t approve on your own machine
Modern DE ≠ unnecessary metadata-collecting services which you can not control within the DE interface. I do not want a “minimal” environment, I want one that looks pretty and is adjusted straightforwardly. Background metadata syncing has nothing to do with graphical environment. I understand that KDE is a whole ecosystem, but a service like this, shipping together with the DE, unreachable through normal settings interface is not what I’m expecting from a DE. Especially from such a modern and featurefull one. If I wanted to manage my DE with text configs, I would go for hyprland or something like this. It’s the issue with KDE that it doesn’t implement accessible configuration options for certain components. Hereby I’m not saying that KDE is totally bad. My main complaint isn’t the existence of Akonadi by itself, some people I’ll hardly ever meet in person would find its functionality extremely useful for a reason. But the fact it is uncontrollable with any KDE settings is dissapointing.
The actual magic of Linux here is that I can still find a text config and disable anything I don’t need there. Without ditching a whole DE because of a couple of things I don’t like.
PS. I have never been on reddit.
So what’s the point? A modern and fully integrated de uses background services and those services are required for many pieces to work so much that they have made not that easy to disable the service?
If that’s the point, you are definitely being unreasonable.
On the other hand the service can still be disabled understandably by text file editing to prevent users from breaking their system. I find the lack of an UI setting to disable it a reasonable choice, and yourself are telling me that it’s still removable by user anyway. A power user indeed, but still user manageable.
Plasma user base definitely is not the customize everything people. I think it’s reasonable that akonadi needs deeper user action to be disabled
That service is local only and needed for many apps to work, including stock widgets.
What is your point against akonadi exactly?
I would complain about that search indexer daemon (kglobalaccel or something similar) in plasma that still after years sometimes gobbles up 100% on a CPU core after screen unlock instead … But whatever
Again, this syncing service has nothing to do with providing a graphical environment. Its functionality has a different purpose.
Disabling this particular service can not break the whole desktop environment. It is simply disabling some additional features, that are absolutely not crucial for the system’s operation. As far as I can tell, simply re-enabling this service brings the features back, it is an easily reversible action, so there is no reason to hide it in order to prevent breaking by an unexperienced user.
If you open any article on Linux DEs comparison, KDE Plasma will be mentioned as offering extensible customization.
My point against Akonadi is that it is hard to disable for no serious reason. Whether you use it’s features or not, you get it running in the background, and you don’t have a normal option to manage it.
Thank you for mentioning the indexer daemon, I will investigate if I need it or it is superfluous for me.
I suggest you open a ticket on akonadi or plasma settings to add that option. That would be a good addition I am always for more settings…
But no, plasma is indeed not in the ballpark of highly customizable de. Maybe more than gnome, but the bar is really low
AFAIK, anything more customizable than KDE relies heavy on text configs and scripts. Another level both in customization options and knowledge required. I will come up to that eventually, but for users, who are not ready for such way of configuring, KDE will stay the most customizeable option.
It’s using your data locally on your machine. If you don’t trust one of the biggest open source projects in the community, perhaps computers is not your thing. :D
I do not need this particular feature anyway. Neither locally, nor in a cloud. But I’m not given the opportunity to know about it and turn it down straightforwardly. It works silently, it can be only discovered via process monitor, and the only way to turn it down is digging into the terminal, as if I didn’t have a graphical environment suite from one of the biggest open source projects in Linux community installed.
If you’re using the digital clock widget, that uses Akonadi, and will launch it on startup. It’s used to (optionally) sync calendar events between compatible apps. There are also a handful of KDE PIM Applications that use it (think Kontact, KMail, KAddressBook, KOrganizer). If you want it disabled, you will need to stop using any Akonadi-enabled app. More information can be found at the KDE userbase for Akonadi. In particular, stop using any KDE PIM Application, as they cannot function without it, and disable calendar syncing from the digital clock. That will ensure the service is never started.
To fix the digital clock problem:
To ensure that Akonadi is not started, check that no applications require it at login. In particular, open the Plasma clock applet preferences, go to Calendar and uncheck Show events to prevent Plasma from requesting information from Akonadi and thus allowing it to start.
I do not use this widget. And even if I did, why do I have to have Akonadi enabled just to see a widget?
Sorry, I’ve revised my comment, so it’s more complete now. As my comment states above, it’s because by default, the digital clock widget (which is placed by default on the task bar–y’know, where it shows the time) has “Show events” enabled by default, which has a dependency on Akonadi. If you uncheck that (and keep in mind that you are using the digital clock widget unless you’ve specifically removed it), and make sure not to use any of the KDE PIM Applications stated above, then Akonadi will never start
Once, Gnome Geoclue service seemed unnecessary and suspicious to me.
Desktop user issues 😂
Disable it by going to “system services” and disabling it
Is it in system settings? I couldn’t find it there
It’s not. look up “services” in your app launcher
Nothing relevant shows up. Had to go to config files.
really? usually KDE based distros have it preinstalled, in Kubuntu for example there’s literally an app called “system services” or “background services” where you can do this. but i’m glad you figured it out
I actually have “background services”, but again, haven’t found Akonadi mentions there. Probably it was called some other way, and probably it was not present there. Anyway, thanks, this app will be useful with other tasks later.
oh, huh. Maybe it’s a SystemD service then, which would be disableable with sudo systemctrl disable akonadi
I disabled KDE once, my life has only gotten better since then.
I think I’m going to start a war against my KDE setup. I can’t even disable bluetooth automatically launching at startup. Well, actually, I could. I had to modify a very-down-to-the-bottom line in some config. But it’s definetly not okay for such a huge DE to make you edit basic settings like this in configs. I always thought simplifying tasks like this was the reason for DEs to exist.
Insanely strong opinions about software YOU chose to use everyday. I’d move to something else with no “bloatware” instead.
I chose KDE, I’m choosing to struggle with it (a very good way to learn Linux deeper btw). What’s the problem?
